Labor
A tool plant adds a third shift, and still cannot fill it
Orders are back. The hiring board in the break room has been up for eleven weeks. The jobs pay $28 an hour plus a night differential.
Tomas Alvarez, Business · October 9, 2026
On the wall of the break room at Meridian Tools, a sheet of printer paper lists 34 openings for the new overnight shift. Someone has written the date in marker: July 24. It is still there.
The plant stamps steel for appliance makers who spent two years complaining they could not get parts. The parts are the easy part now. People who will run a press at 11 p.m. are not.
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